Briefly: Glenn Ficarra & John Requa delivered an occasionally effective romantic comedy this year with Crazy, Stupid, Love., which featured Steve Carell and the suddenly ubitquitous Ryan Gosling as guys trying to navigate tricky romantic waters. Things went well enough with that film that the directors are putting together a new film with Carell that sounds like it is taking a few cues from the Todd Phillips approach to comedy. The project is untitled and in the early stages, but it involves a European backpacking trip. Read More »

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The last film by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, I Love You, Phillip Morris, took quite a winding path to get to theaters in the US. But their follow-up, a romantic comedy called Crazy, Stupid, Love, was made with Warner Bros. and is already set to release this summer. The film stars Steve Carell as a 40-something guy whose relationship with his wife (Julianne Moore) disintegrates, leading him to seek image rehab advice from lothario Ryan Gosling.

The trailer is out now, and it lurks just after the break. Read More »

Last year, The Weinstein Company announced that it would partner with Miramax to make some sequels to titles in the Miramax library. One that was mentioned, and which has come up previous to that announcement, was Bad Santa 2. Billy Bob Thornton is often asked about the possibility of a sequel, and has said he’d be willing to do one.

Now that seems to be happening. as both Mr. Thornton and a spokesperson for The Weinstein Company says the actor is in talks to make the film. Read More »

Good news for those who are interested in seeing I Love You, Phillip Morris, the reportedly quite good caper/prison/gay love story movie with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. After a long, weird bunch of business deals that left the film without any US distribution, the film will finally come to theaters in the States. (It has already played in many other markets.) Refresh yourself on the details of the film’s past, failed distro deals if you wish, but all that matters now is that we’ll get to see it.

Roadside Attractions picked up the film, which was directed by Bad Santa writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The company will release Phillip Morris in the US and Canada on December 3, finally bringing to a close the film’s path to theaters, which began at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Roadside already has two strong awards contenders (Winter’s Bone and yesterday’s pickup Biutiful) and I Love You, Phillip Morris makes an interesting third. [Deadline]

Who would have guessed that a little movie about gay men and prison breaks would generate a full-on distribution saga? I Love You, Phillip Morris , directed by Bad Santa writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa and starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, was bought a while after Sundance ’09, then had release dates pushed back a couple times, then was taken off the release schedule, then put back on.

And now there’s word that the original financier EuropaCorp is taking the film back from current distributor Consolidated Pictures Group, citing breach of contract. Read More »

Briefly: Last week there was a bit of lamentation and gnashing of teeth over the fact that the Jim Carrey / Ewan McGregor comedy I Love You, Phillip Morris had been yanked from any reliable release schedule. Now it has been given a new date, with Consolidated Pictures Group still distributing.

The film will now open on July 30 and then expand on August 6. Whether this is because there was evident interest in the film when the shelving was announced last week, or because the ‘shelving’ was exaggerated is unclear. Either way, we’ll see the film in theaters, and that’s a good thing. [Variety]

I can’t say I’m surprised about this, but I am quite sad: Consolidated Pictures Group, the small distributor that picked up I Love You, Phillip Morris quite some time after Sundance 2009, has decided to shelve the film.

Sorry, not ‘shelve.’ The phrase is, I believe, ‘delay indefinitely.’ Read More »

Not too long ago, word came that Dan Fogleman had sold a spec script to Warners and it was now being set up as a Steve Carell vehicle. The premise, Russ reported, was simple enough:

Carell would be “a father whose life unravels while he deals with a marital crisis and tries to manage his relationship with his children.”

Variety‘s report is a bit fuzzy but it seemsI Love You Phillip Morris directing duo John Requa and Glenn Ficarra have come on to realise the screenplay, or at least something that will grow out of it.

I’m glad that Requa and Ficarra have been repeatedly redeemed from their early job writing Cats and Dogs (and by extension offering a hope of future redemption to Cats and Dogs 2 director, Canuck short films hotshot Brad Peyton).

UPDATE: I’m told by the film’s PR firm that the opening date is now March 26, and that “slight changes” have been made. No more specifics yet on the cuts. Original article follows.

It’s been quite a few months since we last saw any promo material for the Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor comedy/love story I Love You, Phillip Morris. In July of last year there was an international trailer, which did a great job of showing off the film’s evident blend of comedy, con games and love between the two leads, who meet in prison.

Now there’s a domestic trailer from Consolidated Pictures Group, the company that finally bought the film and will release it on February 10. While this trailer makes no attempt to hide the gay love story at the movie’s core, it goes a lot more heavy on the cons and comedy. Check it out below. Read More »